The Innovation and Technology Commission of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government recently announced the list of funded projects under the third round of the “Industry-Academia-Research 1+ Plan”. The project “Ultrafast Multi-Material 3D Nanomanufacturing Platform Based on Two-Photon Projection Technology”, co-applied for by Astra Optics Limited and led by founder Professor Shih-Chi Chen, was successfully selected. This serves as another powerful testament to the team’s research strength and industrialization potential in the field of nanomanufacturing.
I. Aligning with the National High-Quality Development Direction
The project “Ultrafast Multi-Material 3D Nanomanufacturing Platform Based on Two-Photon Projection Technology”, led by Professor Shih-Chi Chen, belongs to the frontier field of advanced manufacturing and is highly aligned with the high-quality development direction emphasized in the national “15th Five-Year Plan”. The “Industry-Academia-Research 1+ Plan” has extremely high requirements for the industrial prospects and commercial feasibility of application projects. Being selected for funding through this screening mechanism is itself an important affirmation of the technological maturity and market value of Astra Optics Limited’s project. The plan will provide 1:1 matching funding for the funds raised by Astra Optics Limited from the industry, with a ceiling of 60 million Hong Kong dollars.
II. Breaking the “Speed-Precision Trade-off” Bottleneck
Nanoscale manufacturing has long been plagued by the “speed-precision trade-off” – the higher the resolution, the slower the speed and the more expensive the cost, making it difficult to support large-scale production. This bottleneck has significantly constrained the industrialization of high-end micro-nano devices. To break through this limitation, Professor Chen’s team developed the femtosecond projection nano printer (FP NanoPrinter). This technology combines spatial and temporal focusing with digital holography, creating a parallelized 3D printing method that has set new industry records across multiple key indicators:
- Printing speed increased to 400 cubic millimeters per hour;
- Resolution reaching between 20 and 100 nanometers;
- Manufacturing cost reduced by approximately 95% compared to traditional solutions;
- Compatible with more than 20 material categories, including metals, semiconductors, and ceramics, breaking the bottleneck of traditional platforms limited to single plastic materials.
By virtue of the above capabilities, this technology opens new possibilities for the large-scale manufacturing of functional micro-nano structures such as mechanical and optical metamaterials, micro-optical elements, and flexible electronics, and demonstrates broad application space in fields including electric vehicles, healthcare, computing, and communications.
III. From Laboratory to Production Line: A Clear Technology Translation Path
According to the project plan, the related 3D nanomanufacturing technology will be undertaken for industrialization translation by Astra Optics Limited, a startup incubated by CUHK. As a startup that has completed its first round of venture capital financing, Astra Optics Limited focuses on the manufacturing of high-precision micro-nano optical components and their molds. Its current product portfolio covers high-growth sectors including optical waveguide components, AI data center photonic interconnects, and next-generation 3D photonic computing chips.
With the matching funding mechanism of the “Industry-Academia-Research 1+ Plan”, Astra Optics Limited’s project will receive more ample resource support for research and development advancement and market expansion, and the translation path from laboratory prototype to industrial product will be further accelerated. This arrangement is precisely in line with the original intention of establishing the “Industry-Academia-Research 1+ Plan” – to unleash the translation potential of local university research results and promote deep collaboration among the government, industry, universities, and research communities.
From being selected as an RGC Senior Research Fellow, to leading the InnoHK CHIP research centre, and now to the successful approval of this “Industry-Academia-Research 1+ Plan” project, Professor Shih-Chi Chen and his team’s dedication to the field of nanomanufacturing continues to receive dual recognition from both the academic community and policymakers at a steady pace. Astra Optics Limited will also drive the research and translation of this project, allowing femtosecond projection nanomanufacturing technology to leave a clear mark of Hong Kong researchers on the landscape of the global precision manufacturing industry.
Information source
https://sc.isd.gov.hk/TuniS//www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/202604/20/P2026042000206.htm?fontSize=1
